Find a Job in Japan

Assuming that you're interested in coming to Japan to work but haven't yet lined up a job, you need
to know where to look. For teachers, the government's JET Program is handled
by Japanese Embassies around the world and some companies, for example the NOVA or GEOS English
conversation schools, do most or all of their recruiting overseas, but most
people don't have a job lined up before they get here.

The last few years has seen huge growth in recruitment on the Internet and there are countless sites with
job listings. Some of the main sites with a focus on Japan are listed in the links section below.

Jobs in Japan is one of the longest established job-finding websites

Once in Japan, the most common and well-established source of job information is the Japan Times.
Apart from the usual criteria - qualifications, experience, age and so on - your visa status may also be relevant
to your employment chances. A lot of companies want to hire someone who already has a valid working visa or who for
some other reason doesn't need to be sponsored by them.

Strictly speaking, it is illegal to work while in Japan as a tourist or student but the law is often ignored and
rarely enforced as long as you don't overstay your visa.

The Internet

There are several English-language sites offering job advertisements on the Internet. Most are free for job seekers
and some don't even charge companies to place their ads. The Internet being what it is, the majority of jobs listed
online are computer-related. The most common jobs seem to be for network engineers and programmers.

The Japan Times

The Monday edition of the Japan Times is the first place most foreigners check when looking for a job (occasionally,
Monday is a so-called 'press holiday' and the classified ads are printed on Tuesday). The Help Wanted section of the
classified ads usually runs to five or six pages and the majority of the ads are for foreigners. Usually somewhere
around half are for English-teaching jobs and the rest are for anything from company president to bartender. The majority
of jobs are in the Tokyo Metropolitan area and there is a separate section for other areas.

The newspaper costs 150 yen and is available at station kiosks throughout the country or by subscription. Other English
language national newspapers, the Daily Yomiuri, Daily Mainichi and Asahi Evening News, also carry classified ads but
usually only a handful at most (the Yomiuri now has a lot of job ads in Japanese). At 120 yen they are quite a bit
cheaper if all you want is the news.

The following are examples of jobs advertised in recent editions:

Native English Speaker wanted by International banking group at Sumitomo Bank for translation,
international publicity and executive correspondence. Japanese fluency and word-processing skills necessary. Please call
Mr. Takashima at (03) xxxx-xxxx.